Issue 076
June 2011
The Las Vegas-based Muay Thai stylist’s frequent training excursions to Holland mean the 4-2 UFC welterweight knows his good-smelling balls from his steel cups
Nikko Boxing Gloves
“Those are multi-purpose for me. I use them for bag work, pad work, sparring; they’re big enough to do everything. The way that I drill is kind of like a Dutch style where it’s a mix of pads and sparring so I need an all-purpose glove and those are them. I got them at Nikko Sports in Holland. They were nice enough to give them to me. They have good gloves and shin guards. They’re tough and they stand up to all the beatings.”
Hayabusa Headgear
“I bought that myself actually when I was sponsored by that company. I can’t lie, it’s actually good headgear, one of the most protective and most visually allowing headgear that I’ve used. It’s got a chin bar. I’ve never used one with a nose bar but it looks horrible. Head gear itself kind of amplifies a punch. It’s obviously safer but that bar that runs in front of your nose looks like it makes punches hurt so bad.”
Nikko Shin Guards
“Shin guards I’m kind of particular about. Those are a good mix between stiff so they’re hard enough to protect your shins, but not hard enough to hurt your sparring partners.”
UFC MMA Gloves
“These are the real official fight gloves so I figured, what better way to train than to use the actual style fight gloves? They are a pair the UFC office was kind enough to give me. I’ve never fought in them but I’ve definitely had some gym wars in them. I like to train what I fight in. There are all different styles of MMA gloves but in my view, why even use something that’s different? If I can make it as accurate as I can get I’ll try to do that.”
Windy Steel Cup
“I’m a big believer in using a steel cup. That’s another little training cue I got from being in Holland; they all use steel cups. It always hurts when you get kicked in a cup but that to me at least is a little mental defense like, ‘OK, you can kick me in the cup if you want but you’re going to hurt yourself.’
Odor Eater Balls
“My mom gave me those for Christmas and I took the hint and put them in my gymbag. They actually work pretty well. Those are good-smelling balls [laughs].”
AxE Soap
“I try to use that daily – try to [laughs]. If you’re anything like me you look for what can be doubled as shampoo and body wash.
I’ve never understood why there’s a distinction because I just use it for both.”
Buddy Lee Jump Rope
“Right before I went on The Ultimate Fighter Buddy Lee [Olympian and jump-rope enthusiast] came out to my school and did a seminar and I was definitely sold. He looked at the jump rope I had and said, ‘It’s cool, but try this.’ There’s just a huge difference. I think, for fighting, it’s better just to be able to work speed.”
Fight Dentist Mouthpiece
“I got that at the big UFC fighter summit they had from the Fight Dentist. They were doing free impressions for all of us and they gave me that and sent it out to me.”
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